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Death of a Salesman is absolutely glorious. I saw this same production on Broadway in 1999 and I've been waiting for it to transfer for six years. It's been completely recast, with the exception of Brian Dennehy as Willy Loman, but the British actors--particularly Clare Higgins and Douglas Henshall--more than match their American counterparts (and their accents are pretty good, too). Death of a Salesman exemplifies all Arthur Miller's shortcomings as a playwright--it's didactic, over-schematic, heavy-handed and almost entirely humourless--yet it's so well put together that resistance is futile. You bow to Miller's moral authority as you do to the God of the Old Testament. No doubt Elia Kazan's 1949 production was the best, but this one, which originated in Chicago's Goodman Theatre in 1998 and has been festooned with Tony Awards, is surely a close second. I know it's meaningless to say that this play will outlast any other of the 20th Century since, after all, the test of time wouldn't be much of a test if you could successfully predict which things would pass it without any proper length of time having elapsed, but...well, I believe it will outlast any other of the 20th Century. Miss this production at your peril. |
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